Chuck Johnson: September 7, 2012 Hopscotch Festival

Chuck Johnson
2012-09-07
Three Lobed/WXDU Day Show
Exclusive download hosted at nyctaper.com
Tracks
01 [intro]
02 On A Slow Passing In Ghost Town
03 Across White Oak Mountain
04 [tuning]
05 A Slender Thread/Dissevered
06 The Flying Spire Don’t Have No Mercy

 

 

Glenn Jones 2012 Hopscotch Festival

Like me, a lot of us weren't at the Hopscotch Festival, but you can listen to Glenn's set HERE
Streaming only, courtesy of:

The Surfdusters - Save the Waves

     
Any regular reader of this blog will know that Ragtime Ralph is a staple here at the Delta-Slider.  Posting his fingerpickin' goodies for all to hear has been a pleasure for me.  Ralph loves sharing his music.  Ralph also has a very diverse taste in music and in his playing history.  Surf music for instance, is a part of his musical history.
So I thought I would post a little of it here.  This is a great collection, here's the blurb from CDBABY:

The Surfdusters, Canada's primo west coast surf band, presents their CD 'Save The Waves' on Fireball 008. What you get here is reverbed up Fender guitars, drivin' Farfisa organ and piano, rumblin' bass, crashin' drums with grindin' sax added to the mix on 27 rockin' instrumentals written by the band - including all 11 tunes featured in the world's #1 cartoon 'Spongebob Squarepants'. Liner notes give you the story behind these tunes from The Surfdusters 'Raincoast Rumble' and 'Surf After Dark' CDs; out of print vinyl, cassette and compilation CDs, and unreleased cuts.
During the 1990s and into the 21st century, Vancouver, B.C.'s The Surfdusters played the west coast of North America - including sharing the stage with legendary Dick Dale and The Ventures - and were the only Canadian band featured on Rhino's 'Surf Box' compilation with their signature 'Save The Waves' instro included on this CD.

Get a TWENTY SEVEN song collection from Amazon for only $8.99 on MP3
CDBABY has the CD for a good price, compared to Amazon, and you get all the liner notes mentioned above.
 

Cian Nugent - 15 September 2012, Tilburg, Netherlands

Bio from his bandcamp page:
Cian Nugent is a guitar player and composer from Dublin, Ireland who combines personal passions, such as suburban/coastal blues, traditional musics, late 1960s & '70s singer-songwriters, jazz ambitions, 20th century composition and the Takoma school into a deeply personal style. His music boasts an orchestrated and fully instrumented sound that is playful and eerie at the same time.

Cian Nugent
Saturday 15 September 2012
Incubate Festival
Pauluskerk
Tilburg, Netherlands
Setlist:
01 intro
02 Grass Above My Head
03 tuning / banter
04 ...
05 tuning / banter
06 My War Blues (Black Flag cover)
07 tuning / banter
08 Double Horse

http://ciannugent.bandcamp.com

Recording is very low but Nugent's playing is great and very nice tone.
Download it HERE

Glenn Jones

Happy birthday to Mr. Jones!

    

The Hired Hand by Bruce Langhorne

Bruce Langhorne’s film score to Peter Fonda’s 1971 cult classic “The Hired Hand” was Bruce’s first solo album and Peter Fonda’s directoral debut and it’s just now seeing it’s first and limited appearance on vinyl and fittingly Scissor Tail Editions inaugural vinyl release. Bruce Langhorne is most known for his session work with artists in and around the Greenwich Village folk scene during the 1960’s.

  Out September 1st - in Limited Edition of 1000 Hand Numbered 180gram Vinyl

 

The 78 Project - Rev. John Wilkins

The 78 Project on the Road: Reverend John Wilkins - "I Want Jesus to Walk with Me" from The 78 Project on Vimeo.
   

KING OF THE 78S - Joe Bussard

Interview here with Mr Bussard.  Maybe nothing real new but I do love this line from the exchange:

Q: Tell me about a record you still regret not picking up?

A: I don’t have any.

Haha!  That's fantastic.  And that's an obsession, not a hobby.
Best part of the article are the pictures so be sure to check it out
Read it over at Dust & Grooves
Looks like a cool project to keep an eye on.
   

C. F. Morrison Guitars

Chuck Morrison started building guitars in 1974. In Boulder Colorado. Two years later he added mandolins to his production and named them after the flatirons which overlook the city. In 1979 he moved to Bozeman, Montana where he partnered with Steve and Maxine Carlson to build and market the mandolins. While Chuck sold his share of the business the following year and moved to Vermont, Flatiron continued on, spawning a strong musical instrument building tradition in Montana.

In Vermont, Chuck spent 12 more years building guitars of all types, a few other instruments and performing many different styles of music. He earned a B.S. in Environmental Science and returned to Colorado in 1992 to begin a new career in computing. 25 years later, having designed and built his own solar powered workshop and home, he turned is attention back to designing and building guitars.

I didn't know any of this a few months back when I started going to a new guitar society meeting in the area.  I think it was my first meeting that I saw a very unique guitar.  Chuck Morrison is the president of the Guitar Society of Northern Colorado and he was toting around this guitar and letting everyone try it out.  What I didn't realize was that he also designed and built the guitar.  

As you can see below it's not a typical guitar.  Notice the sound hole, the cut-away and there's more that isn't readily apparent; a sound port in the lower bout that can be opened and closed, an adjustable neck and Morrison's Offset Keel neck design that allows great access to the upper frets.

Chuck is gearing up to market a line of his acoustic guitars based on features used in the guitar you see above.  It's such a unique guitar I had to ask him if he would be kind enough to talk about his work for the blog.  Not only was he gracious enough to do so but he even accepted my self-invitation to tour the shop and hang out for a bit to learn more about how he builds his instruments.  It was a great visit.  Check out the interview below to learn more about Chuck and the instruments he builds.


You were a student at CU when you left to start building instruments.  What was so compelling for you at that time?

In retrospect, I have no idea. We all feel things strongly when we're young and later on we ask "what was I thinking ?"  It was an exciting prospect and I made the leap.

One of your bridge configurations is a nod to NBN guitars, a Colorado company.  How has NBN and other Colorado influences affected your instruments over the years?

I credit Reb, Andy and Monte for motivating me to start building guitars. Aside from building great playing and beautiful instruments, they turned out to be great people. How could I not try to emulate them ? They did some different things on their guitars, so it never felt wrong to change things up on an instrument in pursuit of a better result. Other influences from that time were Max Krimmel and Pete Nightingale. I'll always credit Dave Goodrich for driving me to understand what quality means.
The obvious NBN influence on my steel string guitars is the staggered bridge pin configuration. The rationale is to reduce the chance of the bridge wood splitting between the pins. It has an interesting visual quality as well, but it's primarily functional. I redesigned the bridge shape long ago and it fit the pin configuration nicely, so I kept it. The other thing I do is carve the neck heel and peghead on the classier guitars. This came directly from the NBN Limited Edition series, which in turn came from high end banjos. Reb and Monte built banjos at ODE before becoming NBN and you can see some of that influence in those guitars.
I should mention that I am proud to be a part of Colorado's lineage of instrument building, which I've traced back to 1959. There have been some outstanding builders in this area and that continues to this day. The rosette I designed and use for my Classical and Flamenco guitars honors the Colorado connection.

Your Keel neck design is your own invention.  It has its obvious purpose, but what do you hope is the result of players having improved access up the neck of an acoustic guitar?

Ultimately the hope would be that the repertoire of the acoustic and classical guitar would expand to include the greater range. It takes a while to get out of first position playing, but once you make that leap, you shouldn't be limited by the instrument your're playing. I'm removing the physical block to the upper notes. Actually using them is up to the players/composers.

Your site is full of what you call technobabble, you have a very scientific approach to building, like your examples of Chladni patterns.  How has that affected your approach over the years?

I started looking at Chladni patterns in the 70s. At the time there was very little published research regarding how this related to guitars. It was primarily violins and even that was not in great depth. So it was completely guesswork. Over the decades various people started publishing on this subject. Alan Carruth's work published in American Lutherie in the 90s and Trevor Gore's recent design book are good examples.
My own approach changes all the time as I try to relate what I see in spectral analysis and chladni testing to what I hear. It's a very complex subject that is complicated by the fact that hearing is such a limited sense in humans. In the end it's all about how a guitar makes you feel as to whether you want to play it again and again. 

Your site mentions a philosophy of improvising in your building, comparable to that of a musician improvising in a song?

I view building an instrument in the same category as composing a piece of music. Many builders make their guitars all the same, copying some well known pattern. But that's the same as playing the same piece of music over and over again. Aside from being boring to do, it's boring to everyone else. I'm improvising with the wood as I build. In the process I learn a lot that just copying a pattern can't teach me. The instrument is more interesting and has it's own identity because of this. That scares a lot of people who think that guitars should all be the same. 

I get the feeling you don’t build anything very traditional.  You are drawn to the new and innovative?

The way I see it, every "traditional" instrument was just someone's experiment that ended up being successfully marketed. The joy in building for me is in creating something that has it's own identity. Why would I want to make someone else's instruments?  For that matter, why would I want to make two the same?  I'm not a factory and my instruments aren't clones.

The steel string guitar you've been displaying lately has an adjustable bolt-on neck, a sort of pie-slice shaped sound hole in the upper bout and a voicing port in the lower bout.  How did you arrive at all of this?

The upper bout sound hole was to be able to access the neck adjustment. The shape of the hole was entirely based on the shape of the area involved and the voicing port was based on my understanding of the properties of resonant air masses and my desire to adjust the sound of the instrument dynamically. It all does what it was designed to do. There are many variations on these themes and I'm exploring them in newer guitars.

New design for the upper bout sound hole.

Is everything done in your shop by hand?

That is a matter of definition and most people don't have a clear one. That's why companies get away with calling instruments that are obviously built on factory production lines "Handmade". So in commerce today, the term is meaningless.
However, to answer the spirit of the question, compared to how a guitar would be built in a factory, absolutely yes. Compared to how Antonio Torres built guitars in 1860, not so much. I've done it both ways and I lean towards the latter.

You are planning on employing a small team to start building soon and making your guitars available.  Will there be a focus on a specific design and when and where can people start buying these instruments?

Employing is perhaps the wrong term to use. I'm attempting to combine the skills of a few experienced builders to create a new line of instruments based on some of my design principles. We will be going in together on these instruments and see if some of the variations we come up with speak to people enough to justify further efforts. The marketing strategy has not been fully vetted yet, so if anyone is interested they should probably just email me directly.

Folks, you can browse Chuck's site, C. F. Morrison Guitars for a ton of interesting stuff and find his email there if you are interested in contacting him about his work.

    

Leo Kottke - December 7, 1974

Leo Kottke
Orchestra Hall
Minneapolis, Minnesota
December 7, 1974

CD-R1 - SB 4 (FM)

Approximate Set List (NOT A TRACK LIST)

1. Medley
2. Pamela Brown
3. Easter
4. Vaseline Machine Gun
5. Morning is the Long Way Home
6. Louise
7. Eggtooth
8. Sailor's Grave On the Prairie
9. Tilt Billings and the Student Prince
10. Taking a Sandwich to a Feast
11. "Carillons"
12. The Tennessee Toad
13. Hear the Wind Howl
14. Busted Bicycle
15. Can't quite put it into words
16. Crow River Waltz
17. Jesu, Joy of man's desiring
18. Jack Fig
Download it HERE
Happy birthday, Leo!!

Harry Taussig - Fate is Only Twice

It’s hard not to make comparisons to his first simply because it was 47 years ago.  It begs compare & contrast.  Nonetheless I’ll refrain from much of that.  If you have his old one you’ll like this one.  If you like this one and you’ve not heard the old one, you’ll like that one too.  Though they aren’t the same, there’s more similarity than difference.  This one feels old. Almost like this was recorded as the sophomore effort and released some 40 years late.  But while that one was dominated by ragtime pieces this one is not.  These pieces have more of a classical influence, some have a Takoma feel to them as well as a strong element of improvisation.

That earlier recording is no crisp, clean Windham Hill production effort and this one isn’t either, but much better while still retaining the dry, straight ahead approach to capturing the sound.  Nothing fancy.

Taussig’s playing is equally uncluttered and sparse.  Make every note count.  Make every pluck of the strings a worthwhile and apparent part of the whole.  Don’t play it just because you can.

Rondo in D starts off the work with a proper American Primitive feel reminiscent of the dark, simple feel so well established by Fahey.

Listen: Rondo-in-D-On-Southern-Themes

Electric Forest , Electric Trees begins as though Taussig was in the middle of the piece and the record button was just hit, an act of capture?  Perhaps.  The song feels improvised and thoughtful at times with returns to the main theme that includes some nice use of harmonics.

In the Corner of the Circle is a delightfully odd piece that seems to almost pick up where the last song left off.  Quirky timing, odd slide work and notes bouncing around like they can’t escape the corner of the circle.  One of my favourites.

Living in the City is the lone 12 string effort.

Perpetuum Mobile Revisited is a ragtimey piece much like his favored approach in the first release.

Fate is only Twice is the fitting title track of the album and closes this effort with a 7:12 minute harkening to the first release.

It’s great to hear Taussig’s meeting with Fate once again captured for our benefit.

Interview with Taussig in 2006
Interview with Taussig in 2012
 
Buy it from Tompkins Square

George Cromarty - Wind in the Heather

Ok, so it's like a game of click through all the links, but really, gotta give the credit where it is due, so click on through.  Bookmark TYWILC and the Doom & Gloom From the Tomb site for all kinds of good stuff.
This one is a gem.  I don't remember this one from when it came out.  So cool to see this bump in respect for the efforts of the Windham Hill folks from so long ago.

Go HERE, follow the links...enjoy.



 

American Primitive Concert in Vancouver, BC

RC Johnston has organized an acoustic guitar concert at Cottage Bistro, 4470 Main Street, Vancouver, BC, 7-11 PM, Sunday, September 16th...featured guitarists: Ryan Leaf, Paul Schutz, Dibson T Hoffweiler and RC Johnston...(aka Ragtime Ralph).
I thought this a good time to introduce a few of these guys here on the blog.
If you've around here a bit you should be familiar with Ralph, if not click on the tab above for lots of Ralph info.

Ryan Leaf, by all accounts is a fine and talented guitarist, but I don't have too much to share with you.

 

Ryan has been working hard to get some recording done so I hope that goes well and we all get to hear some more from him soon. Till then head over to his site, These Paths We Tread where you will find some great content and if you look hard, even some his own playing!

Paul Schultz is from Portland OR. and he's been working on a bunch of stuff this spring and thought he'd share. He is actively seeking gigs in Portland and beyond, so if you know of anything please let him know!

 
Paul also organized a Fahey Tribute concert this year featuring Sean Smith and Ragtime Ralph.

Dibson T Hoffweiler has just released the following work and I for one find it to be just fantastic.  His version of Red Pony is excellent.  Check it out.

      Email or RSS feed not displaying?  Head on over to the blog for all the content.

Andrew Stranglen - Wintertide(Under Ice)

BUY Andrew Stranglen at CDBABY       

Alex De Grassi - Binghamton 02-02-1984

Binghamton NY
State University of New York
Casadesus Recital Hall

1 White Rain/36
2 Inverness
3 Causeway
4 Klamath-Slow Circle
5 Turning Back
6 Midwestern Snow
7 March Sky
8 Autumn Song
9 Blue & White - Street Waltz
10 Cumulus
11

Download HERE




     

Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela Flamenco Quintet

I had my doubts when I first saw this collaboration.  Assuming another flamenco fusion release was going to disappoint me with it's predictable sound.  But I was very pleasantly surprised by what turns out to be a very traditional effort.  It's predictable, but not in the fashion I was expecting, and that's ok with me.  This is very traditional flamenco, by today's standards, with the addition of Dave Holland's bass.  Holland has clearly decided to embrace flamenco and try to shape his art to it, instead of the other way 'round.  This is much more traditional that anything Paco de Lucia is doing out on the road right now.  So if you want to hear something that nods in respect to the traditions but soulfully adds to the genre I'd give this a listen.


Dave Holland & Pepe Habichuela Flamenco Quintet feat. Josemi Carmona - Tampere Jazz Happening, 2011-11-04
Restaurant Telakka, Tampere, Finland

line-up
• Dave Holland, bass
• Pepe Habichuela, first guitar
• Josemi Carmona, second guitar
• Bandolero, percussion
• Juan Carmona, percussion


setlist:
01 - Intro - 0:46
02 - YESQUEROS - 6:48
03 - announcement - 1:01
04 - SANDENGO - 7:01
05 - announcement - 0:16
06 - THE WHIRLING DERVISH - 9:57
07 - announcement - 0:16
08 - TORRENTOS - 6:40
09 - 5:21
10 - announcement - 0:29
11 - TEN GROOVE - 5:20
12 - BAILOAR - 12:02
13 - announcement - 0:32
14 - EL RITMO ME LLEVA - 7:53
15 - announcement - 0:07
16 - TANGOS. - 5:22
____________________
Total Time: 69:51



Download it HERE - Cover art included.

Enjoy
   

Sideways Through Sound 22-08-2012: Harry Taussig & Interview

From the STS site:
Tompkins Square releases American Primitive guitar pioneer Harry Taussig's first album in 47 Years - 'Fate Is Only Twice'.

Released as a short-run private press LP in 1965, 'Fate Is Only Once' has long been a coveted collectible among American Primitive guitar enthusiasts. The album presages the broader movement.

Acoustic musicians were still largely stuck in a rigid "Folk" mindset in 1965, and there are just not that many other examples of the exploratory guitar sounds found on 'Fate' during this time period. Alternating between haunting originals and jaunty blues-based traditional numbers, this absurdly rare LP was reissued by Tompkins Square in 2006.

Taussig's only other recorded works appear on the long out-of-print Takoma compilation 'Contemporary Guitar Spring '67' alongside John Fahey, Robbie Basho, Max Ochs and Bukka White. Taussig spent years as an educator, published instructional guitar books, and traveled extensively to photograph weird museums.

Amazingly, he returns with his first album in 47 years, appropriately titled 'Fate Is Only Twice'. The same stark, smoldering playing is evident, all the humor and inventiveness intact.

Sideways Through Sound every Wednesday at 21:00 (Sydney) and repeated every Sunday at 06:30 (Sydney)On 2ser 107.3FM / 2ser Digital or live stream HERE 

You might want to try this handy time converter to see when the show is on in your part of the world.

Show blog where you can download the show after it's aired.  Just look for the "HERE" link at the top of the playlist for which you are interested!

Samuel James - And For The Dark Road Ahead

Samuel James new release out September 18th from NorthernBlues Music
   

Colorado Guitar Festival Report

Just a brief report about the Colorado Guitar Festival from yesterday.  It was a great bunch of guitarists that took the stage, the weather was perfect and even a slight bit of rain was short lived.

Jeff Wahl

 All kinds of styles were represented, Jeff Wahl with some great modern acoustic playing with roots in Kottke and even his days as a heavy metal guitarist.

Kevin Romero

 Kevin Romero brought flamenco to the stage with cante and palmas!

Justin Roth

 Justin Roth bucking the trend of sitting performers that dominated the day.  Hey!  It's cool.

Michael DeLalla

 DeLalla was his usual entertaining self.  Always witty and always firing off great runs with precision.

Steve Mullins is always pushing the boundaries of genre, here taking a page from the Gipsy Kings style but adding tablas.  Hey, why not?  Later adding a dancer from Seville!!

There were luthiers and artists as well as good food and drink to round out the day.  The Boulder Guitar Society opened the day strong with 6 quality guitarists.  Alfredo Muro was one of the headliners and I've got to insist that you go see him if you have a chance.  Phenomenal!  In fact he will be on a brief European tour in September.

All were had by a good time.

Leo Kottke Classic Interview

Leo Kottke Classic Interview

Richard Osborn “Giving Voice: Guitar Explorations”

- a review by Andrew Stranglen

 Before writing this review, I was prefaced with the idea that it might be a challenge to come up with something satisfactory, and that appeared to be true especially after reading David Leicht's review at Work and Worry.
Now that you've read the Work and Worry review you don't really need this, but here goes, I'm ok with it and I hope it satisfies:

 “…an amazingly patient, spacious, and quietly emotive style.”

- Acoustic Guitar Magazine

  I couldn't agree more!, This was the first thing I noticed on listening to this collection for the first time.  A self-styled "Free-Raga" player, Richard Osborn uses open tunings and a great sense of space and timing to expose the sonic vastness held within his guitar.

  On his website it is explained that Richard Osborn studied under and performed with Mr. Robbie (Basho) Robinson in the early 1970's. Some time after, he suffered an injury to his left hand that kept him from playing guitar (at least publicly) for some 20 years!  It was around 1995 that he found enough strength had returned to his fretting hand to "rebuild his technique and approach".  I can certainly sympathize with this kind of a setback, having myself had an operation to relocate my left Ulnar nerve a few years ago, I'm still not where I was with my own guitar technique back in 2000-2005 before the nerve got pinched.  So I know what it is to rebuild one's technique and approach. I'm still at it . . .

  OMG,
ACK! the Genre listing says NEW AGE, but 'Giving Voice - Guitar Explorations' won't make you think of mushroom hallucinations or alien encounters.  It falls more into the genre of just plain "Primitive Guitar", or "Guitar Soli".   With Raga-based improvisational techniques, Richard lets his tunes set their own course, and nothing is rushed.

  I like this album a lot and find it to be a relaxing, soothing, undemanding-to-the-listener meditative experience.  It's a nice antidote to the urban-hubbub of our all too busy lives.

 The Basho influence is noticeable, but never pretentious, which cannot even be said about some of Basho's own oeuvre, C'mon, ya gotta' admit Robbie does go over the top at least a few times.  Perhaps this is because Richard is taking more advantage of the spaces between notes than did Basho.  Richard's timing, pause, and recapitulation seems more pensive, as if he's letting the guitar make it's own improvisational decisions.   But we know this is all happening between his ears and hands, Richard’s left-hand injury has obviously not made a dent in his relationship with his guitar.  Often using lower strings moreso than the upper triad or dyad, Richard masterfully wends his way on this collection of 'guitar excursions' through various soundscapes evocative of places rarely seen or not-yet-visited, Badlands and Grand Vistas both internal and external.

 I'm thinking take 1/2 Basho(unspiced raga variety) with 1/4 John Fahey and 1/8th Glenn Jones, 1/8th Michael Gulezian, and maybe you're getting close to describing Osborn's sweet collection of tunes.  The longer raga-esque pieces (4 are over 7 minutes long) betray longer time in development yet retain a sense of spontaneity and freshness, while the shorter pieces seem generally more improvisational.  There are a few track to track seamless transitions on this album none the least of which occurs when playing the album on repeat, you can hardly tell the ending from the beginning.  This is a good thing.  The intro and the outro connected such that the outro serves as 'intro' to the intro. I hope that made sense.  Anyhow, of all the various claimants to Bashodom, or 'Bash-O'-ismic influence, Richard Osborn's guitar sensibilities hit maybe the closest of them all.   -Andrew Stranglen

You can purchase it at CDBaby
Richard Osborn's blog
Visit Richard Osborn's site

New Robbie Basho Website

Been meaning to post this for a while but now seems like a great time.  After much hard work this video footage of Robbie Basho has been unearthed and posted.  Only known footage of Basho, wow, that seems stunning.  There's got to be more out there, it's just going to take time to surface.  Perhaps this will be the catalyst.

So if you're a fan of Basho go check out this site: http://robbiebasho.com/Home_Page.html

Here's the link to the video.

Go check it out, there's a complete discography, a radio interview, LP reissues and lots of music.

Michael Wohl

Having trouble viewing music player? Click here.

Sean Smith - Complete

Sean Smith is fundraising for his new album.  All funds from these sales will go to the new studio recording.  He has released his complete recordings on Bandcamp.  All in one place for the first time eveer.  Rare, out of print, self released, unreleased and live.including recording preceding the first full length album and current in-print releases.



Railroad Bill!  That's a sweet one.  I first heard Sean Smith on the John Fahey compilation, Revenge of Blind Joe Death.  That was a good collection that led to me exploring a lot of the players on that release and I have to say that Smith was one of the gems that was on that one!

There's lots more, be sure to check it out over at the Bandcamp site!!!

Visit Sean Smith

If you don't see the embedded music links in your email or RSS feed, please click through to the blog site.  My apologies for the inconvenience.
 

Press Release: The 2nd Annual Colorado Guitar Festival

The 2nd Annual Colorado Guitar Festival

When: Aug. 11th 2012, from 1:00-9:00pm

Where: Willow Farm, 11898 N. 75th St. Longmont CO 80503, In the town of Hygiene (northeast of Boulder, just west of Longmont).

With performances by The Colorado Guitar Quartet, Alfredo Muro, The Steve Mullins Trio, Jeff Wahl, Michael DeLalla, Justin Roth, and more.

A variety of musical styles will be represented; classical, jazz, Brazilian, Spanish Flamenco, acoustic fingerstyle, etc.   The Boulder Guitar Society will be hosting an open stage for its members (and others) to open the event.  Guitar builders will be displaying their creations.  Food and beverages will be available on-site, with beer donated by Oskar Blues.  Proceeds will benefit the Willow Farm non-profit, and an upcoming medical trek to Nepal.

$20 day-pass, $16 for students/seniors, children 12 and under free.

For more information visit www.coloradoguitarfestival.com or www.willowfarmcolorado.org. 

Guitar Festival Performance Schedule (2012)

1:00-2:30 Guitar Society open stage

2:45-3:20  Jeff Wahl

3:30—4:05 Kevin Romero

4:15—4:50  Justin Roth

5:00—5:35 Michael DeLalla

5:45—6:25 The Steve Mullins Trio

6:35—7:15 Alfredo Muro

7:25-8:05 Colorado Guitar Quartet

8:15-9:00 or 9:15 Guitar Alliance (Alfredo Muro, Steve Mullins, Kevin Garry, Kevin Romero)

Bios 

Colorado Guitar Quartet

The Colorado Guitar Quartet features Benjamin Altman, Ben Cantu, James Cline and Kevin Garry—each holds a doctorate in music from esteemed universities and maintain active careers as recording artists, concert artists and educators. All four are accomplished soloists and chamber musicians: Mr. Altman has appeared as the featured soloist with the Macon Symphony in Georgia; Mr. Cantu has performed in the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine; Mr. Cline has been heard premiering new works on KVOD’s ‘Colorado Spotlight,’ and Mr. Garry has performed in the Colorado Music Festival. Recent and upcoming appearances for the recently formed Colorado Guitar Quartet include Rocky Mountain Center for Musical Arts, Universal Unitarian Concert Series, Sheridan College and Front Range College. Their virtuosic and delightful programs include works ranging from Bach to Bizet to Piazzolla.

Alfredo Muro

Alfredo Muro has been described as a Latin virtuoso, but his musical styles and tastes are far more versatile, ranging from standard classical repertoire to jazz. His forte is South American music in its many guises: folk, jazz, Brazilian, classical. Whatever the style, it’s the emotional content of his music that carries the day. Portland Guitar Society

Alfredo Muro has presented concerts in many venues throughout the United States. He had the privilege to be the featured artist at the Kennedy Center for the Millennium Concert Series in Washington D.C, at Benaroya Hall in Seattle and at The Smithsonian Museum.

In March of 2005, Alfredo Muro was selected for the Jack Rosenberg Memorial, Musician of the Month Award, by the Jazz Society of Oregon in their Jazzscene magazine. The Centinela Newspaper in Portland, Oregon, featured Mr. Muro as the “Hispanic of the Month”. The Hispanic Yellow Pages Directory introduced him as the “Pride of the Hispanic Community”.

Justin Roth

Justin Roth is a nationally touring singer/songwriter/acoustic guitarist, based in Fort Collins, CO, who combines an artful blend of hooks laid on a bed of brilliantly inventive guitar technique for a unique mix of acoustic indie folk.  Justin has toured with Red House recording artist John Gorka and has opened for some of the finest singer/songwriters on the acoustic music scene, including Shawn Colvin, Martin Sexton, Lucy Kaplansky, Darrell Scott, and David Wilcox.  Equally, his guitar playing has earned him shared stages with some of the greatest fingerstyle players of today, such as Tommy Emmanuel, Andy McKee, Billy McLaughlin, California Guitar Trio and Pat Donohue.  He has sold over 11,000 copies of his five independent CDs as well as being a core contributor to an instrumental solo guitar album produced for Target Stores, entitled Lifescapes - Solo Guitar, which has sold over 70,000 copies nationwide.  Justin's fan-funded new album, Now You Know, which he engineered, produced, played and sang every note himself in his bedroom studio, was released in May 2011.  It has since been voted as one of the Top 100 Folk Albums of 2011 by Roots Music Report.

Jeff Wahl

Jeff's music has been featured often on local and national public radio programs during the last several years. Upon release of his first CD, Guitarscapes in 1999, Jeff was named one of America's best undiscovered guitarists by Guitar 9 Record's online guitar magazine.

Steve Mullins

“Not only does Steve play classical guitar beautifully, he is also a master of a number of guitar styles. I have never met a guitarist who is as musically acute (he has an amazing “ear”). His flamenco playing could be said to be virtuosic, but this is not what motivates him. Rather he is a master of the expressive arts and guitar is his instrument.” (Brenda M. Romero, Associate Professor of Musicology, University of Colorado, 2011)

Steve Mullins has earned a bachelor’s degree in American Folk Music, a master’s in musicology, and a doctorate in ethnomusicology from the University of Colorado.   He has taught Latin America music, World Music, World Music Theories, and American Indian Music at CU, and currently teaches World Guitar at Front Range Community College.  His doctoral dissertation is entitled Flamenco Gestures: Musical Meaning in Motion 

Michael DeLalla

In a performing and recording career of more than two decades, guitarist and composer Michael DeLalla has brought to the forefront of acoustic music his delicious brew of traditional influences from around the world, steeped with his classical training and seasoned with his jazz, Celtic and folk stylings. Beginning in the '80s as the driving force behind Philo/Fretless recording artists Oxymora, the seminal group that Tom Cole of National Public Radio called "the cutting edge of New Acoustic Music", Michael has forged a distinguished and storied career on stage and studio from his fluency on classical, 12-string, and steel-string acoustic guitar and memorable performances that showcase gifted improvisation and dazzling technical facility that never sacrifices the richness and poignancy of his compositions.

Artist photos available on request and at www.coloradoguitarfestival.com

Unknown Bards: The Blues Becomes Transparent About Itself by John Jeremiah Sullivan

Jennifer Renninger

Late in 1998 or early in ’99—during the winter that straddled the two—I spent a night on and off the telephone with a person named John Fahey. I was a junior editor at the Oxford American magazine, which at that time had its offices in Oxford, Mississippi; Fahey, then almost sixty and living in Room 5 of a welfare motel outside Portland, Oregon, was himself, whatever that was: a channeler of some kind, certainly; a “pioneer” (as he once described his great hero, Charley Patton) “in the externalization through music of strange, weird, even ghastly emotional states.” He composed instrumental guitar collages from snatches of other, older songs. At their finest they could become harmonic chambers in which different dead styles spoke to one another. My father had told me stories of seeing him in Memphis in ’69. Fahey trotted out his “Blind Joe Death” routine at the fabled blues festival that summer, appearing to inhabit, as he approached the stage in dark glasses, the form of an aged sharecropper, hobbling and being led by the arm. He meant it as a postmodern prank at the expense of the all-white, authenticity-obsessed, country-blues cognoscenti, and was at the time uniquely qualified to pull it. Five years earlier he’d helped lead one of the little bands of enthusiasts, a special-ops branch of the folk revival, that staged barnstorming road trips through the South in search of surviving notables from the prewar country-blues or “folk blues” recording period (roughly 1925–1939).
Read it all HERE
Thanks to The Essayist for posting.
Thanks to Tyler for finding it!

Chris Forsyth’s KENZO DELUXE Tour

Photo by Maria Dumlao

KENZO DELUXE will be released as LP and CD on 7/10 on Northern Spy. After 5 European tours since 2009, this will be Chris Forsyth's first extended solo tour in the US ever. 

7/5 - Pittsburgh @ 5201 Penn Ave w/ Pairdown

7/6 - Cleveland @ Happy Dog w/ Mike Fekete & Watchword

7/7 - Detroit @ Trinosophes

7/8 - Louisville @ Swanson Contemporary w/ R. Keenan Lawler & Bill Zink

7/9 - Columbus @ Wild Goose Creative w/ Mike Fekete & Mike Tamburo

7/10 - Arlington VA @ CD Cellar

7/11 - Baltimore @ Golden West

7/13 - Brooklyn @ Death By Audio / Spy Music Festival w/ PG Six & Rhyton - RECORD RELEASE SHOW #1

7/14 Philadelphia @ Aux w/ Spacin' & Mary Lattimore/Jeff 

Zeigler - RECORD RELEASE SHOW #2

7/18 - Kansas City @ Charlotte Street - La Esquina w/ Expo 70 & A Pairing 

7/19 - St. Louis @ Negative Control w/ Kevin Harris

7/20 - Lafayette IN @ Foam City w/ Circuit des Yeux

7/21 - Milwaukee @ The Sugar Maple w/ Mind Over Mirrors & Black Eagle Child

7/22 - Chicago @ The Burlington w/ Mind Over Mirrors & Zelienople

7/23 - Madison @ Mickey's Tavern w/ Spiral Joy Band

7/24 - Minneapolis @ Madame of the Arts

7/25 - Iowa City @ The Mill

More: http://northern-spy.com/artists/chris-forsyth/

  

Steven John Hopkins